The Mage Emperor

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Survival trial

After leaving the school, we went straight home and contacted Lien’s father. He didn’t stay in the house despite my offer, but I could understand him, I wouldn’t want to freeload in someone’s house either. If not for being in love with me, Lien would have refused to come as well.

When Lien called him up, he told her that he was having breakfast in a restaurant nearby and when he found out that we were let off, he called us over to join him. It was half-past eight and we haven’t had breakfast either, so both of us were glad to go. Like this, Lien would get to spend more time with her father and our bellies would be filled as well! Two birds with one stone, as the saying went.

The restaurant didn’t have any particular brand like the Blue Hound, it was just a smaller building with a family-like mood to it. There was a long bar facing the door and seven tables with short sofas next to the windows. It was early in the morning so the sun wasn’t glaring at us yet, but it illuminated the place just right for my taste. Truth be told, I preferred these kinds of places over the expensive places for ‘elites’, I found those annoying instead.

There were only a few people, so we spotted Michael instantly. When we reached his table, Lien and I sat down opposite of him. Wiping his mouth, he gulped one and then greeted us, “Good morning. Go ahead and order something, it’s on me,” he looked back and forth between us.

“Also, how come you were let off?” he added shortly.

“Morning,” I nodded.

“Morning,” Lien said a smile spread on her face and started, “To answer your question, starting with tomorrow, we’ll have to take part in a one-week long survival trial. The teacher told us that those who needed more time to get the necessary things prepared could leave earlier,” she mused.

“Ahaha, and you happened to need more time to do that, I bet,” he said meaningfully. We all knew that we didn’t need the extra time, but it wasn’t like we were the only ones who left early.

“Of course! But hey, we can spend more time together this way. Aren’t you happy?” she pressured him with a foxy question.

Rolling his eyes, he waved his hands, “I am, I am.”

While they were chatting happily, I was trying to drown my surprise. I honestly thought that they’d make a problem out of Lien’s position and that Lien would want to sit next to her father, but neither of them seemed to care about it and she took my side casually. Well, Michael surely wouldn’t have minded if Lien took his side and not mine, but he must have understood that she was growing up and wouldn’t be his cute little daughter forever.

Or it could be that I’m the only one who’d bother with stuff like this, yeah. I must be weird, I guess.

I kind of felt bad for ‘taking’ Lien away from him, considering that he lost his wife, and probably that was the main reason why I wanted her to spend as much time with him as possible.

Wait, am I being empathic with him? This must be empathy… heavens, a miracle! Well, I like his mindset and I think we’ll get along well in the future, so it’s not so surprising.

While I was thinking about trivial things, the waitress took our orders and my father in law asked something more important, “And do you know where they will hold the trial?”

“The teacher said that it’d take place across the eastern and southeastern part of the city because the monsters are quite weak there. The area south to the city is a deserted place and it reaches into the forested area on the east. He’ll tell us more about the trial tomorrow, but I bet that we’ll have to move around both in the forest and in the desert,” Lien explained the details as she crossed her legs and put her left hand on my thigh. She hasn’t really done stuff like this before, so even though it was something little, it made me happy.

“Mhm, that’d make sense, I’ve been to that part of the city not long ago. There were a few D rank monsters to exterminate, so it should be safe for a while. But you shouldn’t become careless just because you’re-”

“Dad, I’m not stupid,” Lien rolled her eyes.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I just started blabbering haha, you aren’t new to the outside world anyway,” he quickly took a sip of his drink. “Right, how about you, Seth? Are you excited to go? This should be your first time going out of the city, right?” he added, looking at me curiously. He seemed to think that his daughter was better in everything than me, he was really proud of her, which was a nice thing, but he was entirely wrong about it.

“Huh? Hahaha, I can’t say I’m excited since I’ve been outside, but I’m curious about the trial and the tasks,” I couldn’t help but smile. I was five years old when I first snuck out of the city and almost lost my life due to a mistake. I didn’t know as many spells back then and it was exactly that event that prompted me to change that.

Learning was an interesting process, despite the fact that people generally hated it. I understood how people felt since I was like that in the past as well, but after that life-threatening meeting with a monster, I started learning and experimenting, which opened a whole new world to me.

As I started to see the ‘light’ and understand more and more, a kind of greed for knowledge spurted inside me and that feeling just grew even stronger over the year, driving me to learn even more. I wanted to see what was beyond mana, souls, and the fabric of reality, even if it sounded dreamy.

“Oh, I didn’t know that,” he replied, a bit taken aback. I could have sworn that as long as we were talking about Lien, he’d be sitting on a high horse, all high and mighty.

“Dad, I told you that he taught me, I wasn’t kidding,” Lien joined the conversation, shaking her head. For some reason she really sounded as if she was trying to brag to her father about me, but maybe it was just my imagination, though it still felt nice.

The waitress came back and placed our orders in front of us. As we started eating, Michael said, “You’re making me curious, we’ll have to spar someday,” he said with a smile.

“By the way, have you heard of that new spell-dealer company? It’s called World Path and the first spell they sold was something amazing, or so I heard. People can communicate any time they want and they don’t even have to see each other like with telepathy. You could be on the other side of the planet and I could still talk to you directly, isn’t that amazing?”

“That sounds nice,” Lien replied, almost choking on her food. Things were becoming funnier for me.

“And guess what, they sold another spell which looked very similar to your Electric Field, but it was way bigger and stronger. In the intro video, the creator took out an A ranked monster with a single shot. Although people didn’t go as crazy about it as about their first spell, thirty people bought it in just two days! The spell was a bit pricey, but it was definitely a powerful one. The only problem is that they always sell spells in limited numbers, so if you miss a spell you want, you probably won’t be able to buy it later.”

“Considering your talent, I’m sure that you have a successful life ahead, so if you have the money, I think that you should watch out for their new spells, they might sell another one like Link,” he started dreaming about the future. What he said was all in the description of the scrolls, which was still visible on the website, so I wasn’t surprised to hear common stuff like that about the workings of the spell.

Looking at me from the corner of her eye, Lien said, “Is that so? It’s the first time I hear that.”

“I wanted to surprise you today by stuffing the money into your hands, but your father ruined my plans, I’m sorry. Also, see this? You’re just sixteen and without the kind of knowledge and experience I have and yet I could sell your spell for so much!” I quickly explained the situation, trying to praise her a bit in hope of bettering her mood.

“Thanks, I appreciate your efforts, really, but I’ve got over my inferiority. I found it stupid to compare myself to you anyway,” she replied as she turned to smile at me.

“Oh, that’s great. I’m happy to hear that. I just didn’t want you to feel saddened by something like that so I tried to do something. Also, if you keep smiling like that, your father might notice something,” I warned her.

“I can’t say that it’s got to stay a secret by all means.” Thinking about it for a moment, I continued, “You know what? I’ll give you free hand in this. If you want to tell him about me, you can go ahead.”

“You really don’t have to go that far for my sake. This is your secret, I shouldn’t be the one to tell it to others, so I’ll keep silent about it,” she replied, shaking her head in front of us. She really wasn’t used to talking through Link, she shouldn’t have moved her head.

It was really no big deal to me since even I considered telling it to my parents. “I’m okay with that, but feel free to reveal it to your father if you want-”

Clearing his throat, Michael interrupted me, though he didn’t know about it, “For how long do you plan to keep looking at each other like that? I’m going to melt from the heat if you two keep doing that.”

“I’m sorry, I just remembered something nice,” Lien smiled at him, destroying all of his impure thoughts about the two of us. Really, he was such a doting father that with a nice smile from Lien he’d be like butter… of course, only if her happiness and safety wasn’t threatened.

While eating, I realised that I almost screwed up. If Michael didn’t think that it was just a similar spell, he could have started suspecting us to be the masterminds behind World Path. Well, maybe he’d have thought that they invented the same spell Lien did, but one could never be careful enough.

Once my father in law paid for everything, we left the restaurant and spent a few more hours together. We watched a movie, bought a few things that would be necessary for the trial, and then had lunch at two in the afternoon. Maybe it couldn't be considered as lunch at such a time, though. After having lunch, we visited the amusement park as well.

I found it a bit strange that Michael was with us the whole day, but I couldn't really blame him. Spending one day with his daughter once a week wasn't much, and who knew if he’d be able to visit her again anytime soon.

My thoughts were proven true shortly because when we left the amusement park, he told her that he would be busy for the next two weeks and probably wouldn't get to visit her.

He stayed one more night with us and left next day early in the morning. Originally, I wanted to fly to the outskirts of the city, but after telling my parents about the trial, my father called up his boss and organised his things so that he’d be able to take us there. It was really unnecessary, but they didn't know that both of us could fly.

Despite arriving rather early, we found a large crowd consisting of at least a thousand people. Tim told us that every third-year student from the four schools in Balan would participate, so the crowd was to be expected. When I scanned the area, I picked up on Mary White’s presence in the crowd, surrounded by a flock of guys. Most of those guys felt rather powerful compared to the rest of the students here, so they must have been her apostles.

The meeting point was in the city behind the walls, so we were still in a protected area. After scanning the place for a second time, I found an empty bench not far away, out of the crowd. I really didn’t want to be surrounded by so many people, so after my father departed, I took hold of Lien’s hand and dragged her towards the place I spotted.

“Where are we going? Also, is it just me or do you feel more excited about the trial as well?” she asked.

“I just want to get away from this mass and yeah, I kind of got fired up a bit seeing these many people.”

“Haha, yeah, I feel the same way. I wonder what kind of tasks are we going to get for the trial. I hope that it’s not going to be subjugation since it’d make things boring for us.”

“Hey, slow down,” she pulled on my hand.

“Ah, sorry, I got used to rushing through crowded places,” I replied. I was being inconsiderate of her, that was a bad call on my part.

“It’s fine, you were just going too quickly,” she muttered in an inaudible voice. Well, normal people wouldn’t have heard it, but I did.

My eyes kept darting around the place, checking out everyone and everything around us. Lien was like candy for the eyes because way too many eyes were drawn towards me compared to when I was still single.

I guess I can’t move around without catching other people’s attention anymore. Having a beautiful girlfriend has its downside as well, who would have thought… It’s totally worth it for me, though.

Truth be told, I was walking even quicker than usual because I wanted to avoid making a scene. I was afraid that some moron would try to pick her up, despite seeing that I was holding her hand. I even thought about using magic just to avert people’s attention, but I decided against it in the end. I didn’t want Mary to notice us for now.

Maybe thanks to lady luck but nobody tried to pick on Lien this time and we reached the bench ‘safely’. Sitting down, she crossed her right leg over the other and asked, “So? Are you happy now?”

“I am! I hate crowds,” I grumbled.

“Haha, I know. I can’t say I like them either, especially because there are always people who… who can’t help but bother me,” she frowned. I found it rather funny that we both hated crowds but we both had different reasons.

“I can’t blame them,” I remarked as I ran my eyes over her. She wore a straw coloured sweater dress which didn’t have a shoulder part and left her collarbone and shoulders bare. For some reason, I found it very attractive and I often found myself staring at her since early morning. Her dress reached down only to her thighs, which combined with her black stockings, made me want to force her legs open and pounce on her.

“You look like a perverted stalker right now,” she said out of nowhere.

I raised my head in confusion and found her looking at me with a smile on her face, making me realise that I was caught once again. Shaking my head, I leaned back on the bench and put my left hand on her thigh.

“Is it better now?” I asked helplessly.

“Yeah, it’s just that I was afraid that your eyes would pop out,” she laughed. “Sometimes you behave like a puppy who is just following me.”

“Ugh, that was rather cruel of you. I’m just trying to be considerate of you since I’m not sure what you like, what you hate, and what you’re okay with when we’re in public,” I explained myself.

“If I don't like something, I'll tell you anyway, so you shouldn’t care so much about what I like and what I do-” I didn't let her finish her sentence and leaned in to kiss her. As I forced my tongue into her mouth, she reflexively put her hands on my shoulders and stared at me with wide opened eyes. Slowly giving in to the feeling, we both closed our eyes and she put her arms around my back. I pulled back only a few seconds later, keeping eye contact with her.

“That surprised me,” she muttered.

“I did what I wanted and I’d do even more but that’s not something we should do in public. Are you happy now? I certainly didn’t look like a puppy following you,” I said.

“Did it hurt your pride?” she chuckled.

Turning towards the crowd in front of us, I leaned back silently.

“Haha, so it did. You can be pretty cute sometimes,” she said, happy to make fun of me. Leaning closer, she whispered into my ear, “I kind of want to dominate you at times like these.”

I felt a shudder run through my back as her hot breath tickled my ear, but I quickly drowned my rising desire. Clearing my throat, I said, “I’d like to see that happening, maybe if you stopped losing your mind all the time.”

“Haah? Are you challenging me?” she fell for my provocation. It was for the best if I started bickering with her else she’d eat me up.

Raising my brows, I smirked, “No, I was just saying the truth.”

“Yeah? Let me tell you, I could dominate you any time I wanted,” she said in a low voice. I was glad to see that she didn’t lose herself in the heat of the moment and started shouting stuff like that, it’d have been really embarrassing.

“Oh, I can’t deny that,” I smiled at her, dropping the matter.

She looked at me with a frown and asked, “Why do I feel that I was defeated?”

Smiling, I continued looking forward in silence, ignoring her colourful expressions. It was as if she was trying hard to make me laugh. Clenching her fists, she kept eyeing me for a few more seconds before finally saying what was on her mind, “Is it because you were the first to take a step back? It makes me feel as if I missed something.”

“That was the point,” I replied. Sometimes ending a pointless debate which was filled with pride, made the ‘winner’ side feel like a loser. It was like losing an intellectual battle, but it happened to everyone, well, not to stupid people, they wouldn’t realise they ‘lost’.

Sighing loudly, she took hold of my hand and leaned on my shoulder as she cursed at me in a low voice. I couldn’t help but laugh at her.

“Being all lovey-dovey in the morning, you two sure get along,” Elena remarked as she appeared behind us.

“And here I thought you’d keep spying on us,” Lien said as she sat up and turned around.

“So you said all those perverted things despite knowing that I was here?” she frowned.

“Yeah, you know about us anyway. Also, I don’t think a short debate about domination is perverted,” Lien replied.

“It was about domination in bed, so it was perverted. Also, are you telling me that I don’t even matter?” Elena gasped playfully.

“Kind of.”

“Lien… have you ever had female friends? Or male ones? Or any gender?” Elena asked seriously this time.

Frowning, she questioned her, “Are you asking this seriously?”

“Yes,” Elena nodded.

I was also curious about it, but I was quite sure that the answer was something we both expected.

“I had, but after moving I lost contact with them,” she replied.

“Are you telling the truth?” Elena pressed on with her questioning.

Sighing loudly, Lien admitted the truth, “No, in my childhood I spent most of my time with Seth and since he avoided other kids most of the time, I didn’t get to befriend them either. By the time I became twelve years old, my mother died, we moved to Ushua, and I became ‘popular’ among guys in my new school. I felt really down at that time and their constant pestering didn’t help me either, not to mention all those empty and lustful looks they gave me. Neither of them cared about me and just wanted me to open my legs for them.”

“Girls didn’t get too close to me either, probably because they felt envious, though I had a few girls who I got along with, but I wouldn’t call them friends.”

“Things got really bad only when I finished creating my own spell and word got out about my talent both in magic and spell creation. Since my mana is akin to a noble’s when it comes to power and my mana pool is even larger than most of the people at my age, they started some kind of race to get me. I had to move quite often because of them, which led to a few rather lonely years. So I’m sorry if I’m outspoken or rude, though I’m just being blunt and honest, but that’s how I grew up. I’ve had enough of all the fake people.”

Looking at her in silence for a few seconds, Elena apologised, “Uhm, that sounds tough, I’m sorry for asking. If I have to be honest, I always thought that you were behaving like a bitch, I guess I misunderstood you…”

“In what way did I take after a bitch? Seriously,” Lien shook her head.

“I don’t know, I was just annoyed by you,” she laughed.

“So that makes me a bitch, right?”

“Yes.”

Looking at each other, they both chuckled. Remembering something, I couldn’t help but ask with a frown, “You know, you never told me why you had to move when your mother died.”

“I’m not sure if I should tell you,” she muttered.

“Are you kidding?”

“No, it’s just that you might get really angry,” she replied. Seeing me staring at her intently, she sighed before saying, “There is no need to bother with this, really, but I’ll tell you why. As you know, Mother was part of the Zerun clan, who weren’t happy to see her with a ‘commoner’, a.k.a, my father. While she was still alive, they couldn’t do much about it, but after she got killed by an SS ranked monster, the Zerun clan said that the house was bought from their money and even forged documents. Even after going to the court, Dad had no chance to win and so our house was taken away and then sold.”

“That’s why we had to live in hotels, which cost much more than having a house of your own, especially because we had to keep moving because of some bastards. I’m not trying to make you feel sorry, but I even lost contact with the boy I loved, so I had a few really shitty and lonely years. Although Dad was there for me and cared about me, it was still different, in a way.”

“If only my father could find happiness again,” she sighed in exasperation. A smile forming on her face, she added, “But now it’s all good.”

“What are you doing…” she asked, looking at me.

Wiping my teary eyes, I said, “Somebody must have sliced onions nearby.”

“Haha, you fool,” she put her hand on my face.

I couldn’t help it, I felt deep for those that I loved, despite being cold to those that I didn’t care about. I could imagine how bad her life must have been right after losing her mother, but if I really made her so happy, then I’d just continue to be myself, so that she wouldn’t have to feel disappointment again. Not because of me.

“Please answer my question honestly. Do you want to take revenge on the Zerun clan?” I asked.

“No, although it was a real dick move, it was Mother who paid about two third of the house, and she probably got most of it from her clan. I despise them to their very core for taking away the home I grew up in, the home that once belonged to my parents, but I don’t feel the need to punish them,” she shook her head, unconsciously clenching my hands.

“And would you mind if I went on a ‘crusade’ of my own?” I asked with a grin on my face.

Massaging her temples, she replied, “I’d lie if I said I’d feel bad if anything happened to the clan, but I can’t say that I want you to start murdering or anything of the sort.”

“What? No, I didn’t mean that I’d kill them… How about financial pressure? Though that’ll have to wait,” I muttered.

“If you can and if you want to,” she shrugged her shoulders. She was definitely in for it.

Zerun clan… I’ll remember them.

My thoughts were interrupted by a brown-haired muscular man who appeared atop the walls, “Everyone, everyone! Can you hear me?” he asked, using wind magic to carry his voice to everyone. Seeing that everyone turned towards him and the crowd turned silent, he continued, “Greetings to every student and teacher alike who is present! Today is the day the Survival Trial starts!”

Lowering his arms, he introduced himself, “My name is Jonathan White and I’m the director of the First School in the northern district, additionally, I’m the leader of the School Union. You’ve surely heard of this trial from your predecessors or your family or the news, since it’s a very important trial. This may be the first time for many of you to leave the city, the shelter you grew up in, and take a step towards your future!”

The four schools didn’t have specific names, they were just called First School, Second School, and so on, while the School Union was something that I never bother to find out about. I was sure that this guy was a big shot, which meant that Mary was from a really prominent family.

“Let’s not waste the time and get right to the bottom of the well. My clan tamed a few stronger monsters for this special occasion, who’re going to guard different sectors. If you feel that you can’t go on or if you got seriously wounded by a monster, you can find these monsters and they’re going to take you out of the area. Everyone will get a tracker, which you can use to find these monsters and you can also use it to request assistance. But if you do, it means that you’ll have to repeat year, unless the monster chasing you is above E rank.”

Monsters were ranked from H to A, H being the weakest, and A being the strongest, but that was only if we considered normal monsters. The truly powerful and dangerous ones were the mutated apex predators, ranked S, SS, and SSS. Obviously, the more S meant that it was more powerful and more special.

“This year your task will be the following. There will be roughly eight thousand monsters in the area, each marked with a yellow, star-shaped brochure. My clan tamed all of those monsters only for a short period of time to put the brochures on them and then released all of them, so you’ll have to be as careful with them as with any other wild monster. Your task will be to collect at least seven stars by the end of the trial. You’ll find the stars on their underbellies.”

“Well, if you can get them without killing the monsters, it’s good enough anyway. Before you ask, yes, you can take it from other students this year as well, but you shouldn’t use deadly spells else you’ll be disqualified and will be punished by the School Union. Remember, you should never kill or hurt a fellow student!”

“Even if you can finish the task in a single day, you’ll have to stay for seven days because you’ll have to leave for week long expeditions sometimes even after you graduated. It’s best if you get used to it early on. And now on to clothing and rewards.”

“If you can get more than seven monsters, you’ll be rewarded. Everyone will get a list which is going to state what are you going to get for how many stars. Also, the rewards aren’t stacking, so if you got fifteen stars, you won’t get the reward for getting ten stars as well. But I can assure you, it’ll be worth going for the better rewards. The person ending up with the most stars will receive something special, but that’ll be on the list as well.”

“Anyway, there are exactly one thousand and fifty-two students present, and we have even more armors prepared. These are full-body leather armors, which would protect you against the cold, the hot, and most importantly, the monsters! Naturally, you shouldn’t rely on them when it comes to defense, but some additional protection never hurts. H ranked monsters definitely can’t hurt you if you wear one of these armors.”

“You aren’t obliged to get one, but either of you can do so free of charge and you won’t have to pay for them even if they tear during the trial. This will be all on the White clan! Personally, I’d recommend you to get armor for yourself. Now everyone, please move towards the gates where you’re going to find fifty booths. After registering, you’ll get a list of the rewards and you can also get a piece of armor if you want one. Oh, and you can keep it after the trial as well!” he said with a smile on his face.

“One last thing, we may have hidden a few smaller treasurers here or there, but they are all hard to get, so be careful if you come across any,” he added.

How generous… all I’ve seen was a gigantic advertisement, live! While he was talking about the rules, Elena told me that the White clan had numerous armor stores across Eglon and Ushua. These armors were probably made from cheap materials, but in the future, what would come to people’s mind if they wanted a set of armor? It’d be the White clan’s store, naturally.

“Seriously, for you to not even know about the White clan, just how ignorant are you?” Elena shook her head.

“Shaddap, I never bothered with things outside my environment,” I grumbled.

“Fine, fine. I’ll go and get in line, good luck, you two. Though you probably don’t need it…” she waved her hand and left us alone.

“Well, she isn’t as bad of a person as I thought, it’s just that she’d do way too many things for money,” Lien shook her head. “It’s really sad when I think about it. I’m actually glad that you asked her to work for you, after all,” she added.

“Good to hear. Should we get in line as well? I kind of want to get over it quickly,” I said.

“The others who registered can’t leave the place either. I’d rather be among the last few, it’s pointless to rush,” she replied, eyeing a few people who were holding their brand new armours with bright smiles on their faces. They were all dark green coloured one-piece armours, with a thickness of about three centimeters. It seemed to be some kind of lizard skin, but I wasn’t sure since it definitely went through a few steps before it was turned into armour.

Since there were fifty booths, the process was quite quick and we finished in about half an hour. To my surprise, Lien came out with an armour on her right arm. Seeing me staring at her curiously, she explained herself, “This is just for safety reasons if my clothes tore and for the time when my clothes would be drying. I plan to wash them in a river or something, I mean.”

“That makes sense, though I’d enjoy it even if you stayed naked while your clothes were drying,” I mused, eyeing her with perverted eyes.

“You pig.”

“Pardon me,” some sneaky guy poked her shoulder and after Lien stepped to the side, he moved forward. Raising a brow, I looked after him and saw him doing the same thing to many others, but his path seemed to be inconsistent for someone who was trying to go somewhere. He disappeared from my sight shortly, so I used that time to take a look at Lien’s shoulder.

I kind of forgot about where we were and pulled down her sweater, revealing about half of her bra for a moment. Quickly pulling it back up, she slapped the back of my head, “What the fuck are you doing?”

“I’m sorry, that guy a moment ago left a tracking spell on you,” I replied.

“I know, that little shit thought he could track me unnoticed. The only reason I haven’t destroyed it yet is that I want to find out what was he planning to do with me,” she quickly fixed her attire.

“Oh, we can leave it on, in that case, I’ve become quite curious as well,” I muttered, thinking a bit ahead. Would he try to target her and steal her star? Would he try to play the hero? What was that guy even thinking? Why'd he try to track so many people? It made little sense to me, but he was definitely one of the talented students present.

Once everyone registered and got their armours, Jonathan said, “Now that all of you are ready for the trial, let's start!”

The huge gate separating us from the outside world started opening, sending a loud rumble through the area as the ground shook.

“Are we in a hurry?” Lien asked, crumpling the reward list in her hand.

“We aren't, but why'd you do that?”

“You have a list already, I assume you don't want to go separate ways, so it's pointless to carry around two,” she smiled.

“Fair enough,” I nodded. “Where should we go first? Also, is there anything that you're interested in?” I asked, handing over my list.

“Passing the exam, seven stars. A few low-level spells for ten stars, an upgraded version of this armour for fifteen stars, a selection of cold weapons for fifteen stars. A few mid-level spells for twenty stars, a mana pool enhancing pill for twenty-five stars, a mana strengthening pill for thirty stars, and a package of everything mentioned before for fifty stars.”

“The top ranking will once again get everything, plus they could become the apprentice of the White clan and enjoy their resources. They are also going to get five more mana strengthening pills. How generous. I can't say I wouldn't fight for the top rank if you weren't here for me. What do you think, are these things any good?” she asked with hopeful eyes.

“The mana strengthening pills are just condensed mana mixed with a few herbs. For common people, they're definitely amazing treasurers, especially at such a young age. I'm not really interested, but we could get the all-in-one package for fifty stars,” I said with a smile, seeing that she was really interested in it.

“Wouldn't that catch unnecessary attention?” she hung her head.

“Well, I can't say I want it, but whatever, let's go for it,” I waved my hand.

Stepping closer, she hugged me strongly and said happily, “Thanks!” Caressing the back of her head, I stood there grinning like an idiot for a few seconds. She was so cute.

“Come, we should leave, we are almost the only people still standing here,” I said as I looked around. The other students were flooding through the gates while we were standing in place like idiots. Quickly passing the gates, we decided to go towards the forest while it was daytime. Neither of us wanted to be glared at by the sun in a deserted area…

Despite numbering more than a thousand, just a few minutes after entering the forest, the crowd started dispersing. Stopping in place, I couldn't help but ask, “How about going to the desert, after all?”

She turned towards me and raised her brows. After thinking about it for a moment, she nodded her head. “I guess it’d be better. The forest will be filled with people, so it'll be harder to collect stars and to move around without stumbling into others. We might be able to find a 'treasure’ as well,” she said

Seeing me nodding my head, she growled playfully, “Rawr~ Will we be the dragons looking for treasure?”

“Haha, yes, we will.”

Leaving the lush forest, we had to cross a plain before we reached the desert. There was sand as far as the eye could see, as expected in a desert…

While she was looking around, a wave of mana burst out of her body in a sphere and after colliding with a few monsters lurking under the sand, she learnt of their positions. The good old scouting tactic. The only problem with it was that it alerted the monsters as well, not that we minded it.

“How many did you sense?” I asked.

“Five, are there more?”

“Not in the area you scanned.”

“Damn it, did you use more mana to sense a larger area or did you use a different method?” she stomped on the ground.

“Soul search. That's what I call it,” I smiled at her.

“I knew it, you have something different,” she grumbled.

“Let's finish these monsters and I’ll tell you more about souls-” she didn’t even wait for me to finish my sentence and stuck her hands into the sand. In the next moment, the dunes blew up and the sandworms lurking underground shot into the air like bullets. They started flailing their disgusting bodies desperately, probably feeling their end.

While the sandworms were still in the air, she took out her katana and with the help of some wind magic, cut all of them into two halves. Poor creatures didn’t even get a chance to attack her before they were slaughtered. Landing on the ground next to me, she swung her weapon to shake off the blood.

“Oh, that was a good way to get them out of the ground, though it was a bit costly,” I remarked, seeing a few drops of sweat appearing on her forehead. Causing an explosion of that magnitude under the ground must have halved her mana pool, but she could get rid of them quickly this way.

“Honey, you’re underestimating me. I’m sweating because of the heat, not because of the mana loss,” she patted my shoulder and then made her way towards the fallen monsters.

When she touched me, I was able to sense her mana pool and realised that she wasn’t just talking big. Not even sure what to say, I followed her and helped her take off the stars that were stitched into the monsters’ leathery skin. “So that’s why telekinesis didn’t work,” I muttered.

“Yeah, I checked it earlier out of curiosity, but the stars didn’t even budge when I tried to pull them,” she said.

“Well, if I used more mana, I could tear it out of its flesh, but it’s easier to get rid of these disgusting things,” I remarked.

Standing up, she counted the stars she collected and then looked at me with her hands on her hips. “So? Will you teach me? I’m all ears!” she jumped towards me and grasped my hands, filled with excitement. I pushed her hands back and continued walking deeper into the desert while she started following me.

“Let’s start with theory and then I’ll teach you practical stuff as well. You must understand these else you won’t be able to use soul spells.”

Raising a finger, I started, “Every living creature has a soul which is engulfed in an elemental ball. Based on the colours the ball contains, you can find out what kind of elements the creature you’re inspecting can use. Spellcasters usually have an affinity for every element and I think that it should make sensing souls a bit easier, so good luck with that.”

“Inside those elemental balls you can find souls, each with different colour, shape, and ‘hardness’. By hardness, I mean that you can ‘poke’ souls with your own soul and people’s souls react differently. I’d say that yours is one of the hardest I’ve seen up to date.”

“Oh, right, and by shape I meant that souls have different carvings in them that describe their personality to some degree. It may mean more than I think, but I don’t have enough experience to tell you exactly what does each carving mean. The shape of a soul is always an exact copy of the living being, but what really differentiates them are these carvings since souls don’t have hair, makeup, skin colour, and other similar things.”

“I’ll say this just as an example, a short stripe between the brows mean that the person in question is short-sighted, and I don’t mean it literally. A round circle around the genital means that they like the opposite gender. One last example, stripes on the palm mean that they’re greedy, but the more stripes there are, the greedier they are. You should be careful with people who has more than five,” I frowned, remembering a few bad memories.

“I’ll warn you in advance, but it won’t be easy to sense souls. Despite having the necessary knowledge, it took me a few days, but it probably won’t take as much time for you since I’ll be here to help you. What you have to do is close your eyes and try to look into yourself. It may sound weird, but that’s what I did. Based on what I told you, you should imagine what you look like and to do that, you’ll have to think about what kind of person you are. The carvings, the elemental bubble around your soul, and your soul should slowly take shape in you if you keep imagining it.”

“Once you’re able to sense your own soul, it won’t be hard to see other people’s souls. I usually hide my soul, but if you learn to sense your own, I’ll uncover it so that you can see mine,” I explained.

Nodding her head, she stopped walking and closed her eyes. I knew that she was hungry for more, but I was a bit surprised by how much she wanted it. Stepping in front of her, I knelt down while showing my back to her. “Get on,” I said.

With her eyes still closed, she reached out and tried to find my body. After locating my shoulders, she slumped down on my back, still trying hard to imagine what I told her. I couldn’t help but start laughing loudly, breaking her focus.

“What’s so funny?” she cried out as her eyes shot open.

“It’s you.”

Pouting, she closed her eyes once again and continued. She didn’t know it, but I was feeding her soul with mine, which should make it easier for her to sense souls. I believed it was only a question of time.

Hmm, a few people are coming this way. I should get out of their sight, but what should I do with the mess Lien left? Whatever, it’s not like they’ll find out who did it. Taking one last look at the craters that appeared in place of the dunes and the liquefied sand in the middle, and then left in a hurry. A regular student wouldn’t be able to do something like that at the age of sixteen, so if anyone found us here, we’d be found out instantly.

I was hoping that the results wouldn’t be publicised or that we could request to stay hidden from common eyes, but as long as it made Lien happy, I wouldn’t mind giving up on my privacy. It wasn’t like it was a big secret I wanted to hide by all means.

Leaving the craters as they were, I propelled myself forwards and landed a few hundred meters away. Doing it a few more time, I reached a rocky hill and quickly climbed it in a few more jumps. Mixing some wind magic and telekinesis could do wonders to your traveling speed. It was much easier and quicker to travel if there was nothing to resist you.

Looking down from the hill into the distance, I spotted three people far away, who shortly reached the place where Lien fought off the sandworms. I was kind of sad because I had no one to talk to, or to be more exact, I couldn’t talk to my favourite person. As I sat down on a large rock, I turned my head to the side to look at my lover’s face, only to find a pair of furrowed brows and her veins bulging out.

Shaking my head, I said, “Lien… you don’t have to force anything. Just because you flex your muscles or I don’t know what you’re doing, you won’t be able to sense it. Don’t be impatient, I told you that it’d take time.”

I felt her grasping my shoulder with a bit more strength than I appreciated as she gnashed her teeth, “Damn it, why is it so hard?”

“Hard? If I weren’t feeding you my soul, it’d take days, not just today! Well, only if you can get it right today, of course,” I replied.

“I will!”

“It’s much more like meditation, you must calm down and ‘give up’ on it to be able to sense it. If you don’t want to or have to feel it, you’ll just ‘get it right’ naturally. That’s how it happened for me. Also, take a rest in the meantime and look at them,” I pointed towards those three students who started tracking us. They were looking for my footsteps on the ground for some reason and kept moving towards us.

“Why are they trying to follow us?” she frowned, still clinging to my back like a cute koala. I really wanted to take her off of my back and then cuddle her.

“Considering that they’ve covered their faces, they probably want to trail us and then rob us of our stars at night. Or the worst case scenario is that they want to attack us while we’re ‘tired’,” I said.

“Yeah, or they could be after you or me. Who knows if it isn’t Mary’s doing? They might be just messengers of the sort,” she said. “How annoying. I kind of want to get rid of them, how about it?”

“You aren’t a forgiving one, are you?” I chuckled.

“No, I’m not. I hate it when people try to creep the ladder on other people’s backs, they piss me off so much! If they aren’t messengers sent by Mary, they must be trailing us to take advantage of us, so they’d deserve punishment. And if they’re really Mary’s dogs, the solution I thought of won’t be a big deal,” she turned to the right, eyeing a larger monitor lizard not far away. It’s been sneaking around us and sizing us up for a while.

Maybe in the past it was just a smaller animal people could stomp on, but the one in front of us was a fifteen meters long and four meters tall massive predator. The sandworms Lien killed earlier were all H ranked, but this monitor lizard was an E ranked monster, the strongest kind we were supposed to be able to deal with. If it was any stronger, we could request help from the tamed monsters nearby and then continue the trial as if nothing happened.

This meant only one thing to me. I could use this lizard to attack the people who were following us and if they failed to take it down, they’d have to repeat year. I found that sort of punishment good enough for their kind. “Now look at me carefully and try to sense my soul, you’ve got the perfect chance for it,” I said as I walked towards the lizard and raised my hands.

What I planned to do wasn’t taming, like the White clan could do. I just wanted to use my soul to communicate with the monster and send it elsewhere. After I engulfed its soul in mine, I sent my thoughts towards it, “You’re aiming at the wrong person, you aren’t strong enough to fight me.”

Hissing, the lizard stood up on its hind legs for a moment and clawed towards me in the air. Pointing towards the other students, I added, “You should go for them instead.”

Turning to the side, the monitor lizard hissed once again, most likely ignoring or not understanding what I said. Some monsters were capable of understanding this kind of communication, but this one was too young and weak to have that kind of intelligence.

But after I sent a wave of mana towards it, it lowered its body and rushed towards the other students. Monsters were sensitive to mana, so that simple wave I sent was enough for it to understand that I was way stronger. Shrugging my shoulders, I remarked, “I guess this one prefer a showcase of power instead of talking.”

“Do you think they can take it down?” Lien frowned.

“I’m not sure, I can’t sense how powerful they’re from this range, only their souls, their presence. If you want to make sure, I could do some additional stuff,” I replied, looking after the lizard.

“It’s not like they’ve done anything bad and if the three of them aren’t enough to kill it, they really have no place among the third year students. We should just leave,” she said, turning her back on them.

“Fair enough, if they still come after us, I’ll wait and see what they want,” I nodded my head. On the other side of this rocky hill, I could see a smaller oasis where we’d definitely run into a few monsters.

“Now that I think about it, if you weren’t here, I’d have had to be careful with how I spent my mana else someone could have taken advantage of me if I ever got tired,” she thought aloud.

“Are you telling me that you’re happy to have me,” I mused.

“I am, dear, I am.”

Looking her up and down, I said playfully, “You know, I’ve just realised that we’ll have sex outdoors today.”

Staring back at me in silence, she took out a rubber ring and tied up her hair into a ponytail, making her look even sexier. “I’m not sure about that. We really shouldn’t do those kinds of things during the trial. What if a monster attacked us? Or if a group of students stumbled into us? It’d be terrible,” she shook her head in denial.

“Don’t sweat the small stuff,” I laughed.

“It’s not just small stuff.”

“I always get what I want, one way or the other!”

“Well, I’ve got bad news for you then because you aren’t going to get it this time,” she smirked.

“Who says?”

“Me.”

“Do you even believe what you’re saying?” I laughed, knowing that every word she said was a lie. Biting her lower lip, she turned away.

“I thought so.”

“You’re being cheeky, you should have stayed quiet,” she muttered, turning her back on me and making her way towards the oasis. Seeing her bare shoulders and her nape, I kind of wanted to jump on her and start kissing her, but not even I was stupid enough to do it so early in the morning while the area was swarming with students. Sooner or later others would come this way. It was only a question of time.

“What do you think? Will we find anything else other than monsters?” she asked.

“Do you mean a treasure?”

“Yes.”

“If there will be many monsters, we’re likely to find something based on what Jonathan said. I wonder how Aphrodite… or I should say Mary is doing. She had a rather large and powerful entourage, I’d like to avoid running into them,” I said.

“Why? Are you not strong enough to take them out or do you just want to keep her thinking that you are a foolish person? Well, you are to some degree,” she didn’t miss the chance to pick on me.

“It’s the latter, and it seems like I’ll have to punish my disciple tonight,” I added, smacking her ass.

“Master, what are you doing?” she turned around, rubbing her bottom.

Role-playing? We haven’t tried it yet, I hope she’s going to go along with it at night as well. I kind of want to do it once in a while.

Turning the conversation a bit more serious, I asked, “I don’t think I’ve ever asked this, so what do you plan to do in the future? Although I’d be glad to have you as a housewife, you probably want to do something. Or no? Call me stupid and selfish, but I really wouldn’t mind taking care of you for the rest of my life,” I laughed.

“Well, maybe that’d sound like a good deal to other women, but I don’t want to be ‘kept’, if you get my point. It’d hurt my pride if it was only you doing everything,” she shook her head.

“So? What do you have in mind then?” I picked up the pace a bit.

“I have multiple things I’m interested in doing. Firstly, not even I’ve been too far from the city and there are many ruins that are left unexplored. t’s been my dream since childhood to leave these damned cities behind and just go somewhere far away with you. So in short, I always hoped that you’d tag along and explore the world with me, but that felt rather unrealistic.”

“That being the case, the other job I was interested in was creating spells. That seemed to be more realistic, so I always thought I’d start working for a company that created spells and I’d also help defending the cities like my dad. I was hoping that one day we could work together for a company or better yet, have a company of our own and we’d create spells that’d bring change to the world.”

“But after finding out about your origin and all this god stuff, I’ve become a bit unsure of that. You made a company already and its name spread right after selling one spell. I could work for you as well, but depending on what I’d have to do, maybe I’d find my job unnecessary. I mean, let’s be honest, you wouldn’t need my help to sell or create spells with the kind of knowledge you have. Please don’t misunderstand me, but the fact that you’re the incarnation of a god and that you know so many things already, crushed my dream.”

Massaging my temples, I really didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry for that. Really, maybe I should have kept it a secret and then we could have… no, never mind, that’d have been stupid.”

“I was about to smack you. I wouldn’t want to live a fulfilling life only to find out in the end that it was all a lie,” she shook her head.

“Yes, that’s why I stopped talking bullshit. Well, my good news for you is that I also planned to explore the outside world, so I’ll definitely tag along. We may find lost technologies, other colonies we lost contact with and such. I’m sure that Ushua and Eglon aren’t the only living human population on the planet. Maybe there are other countries with completely different laws and living standards!” I started talking about it, a bit excited to just dump this trial and leave to explore the planet.

Sure enough, the Internet was remade and many of the lost technologies have been reinvented or found in ruins, but that didn’t mean that we ‘reconnected’ to the rest of the world. Years ago, there has been an explorer who found a smaller village a hundred kilometers to the South from Balan, but we haven’t heard much about them ever since.

There were few people who were daring enough to leave the safe cities far behind and dive a hundred kilometers deep into the forest, jungles, deserts, and other monster-infested places. Even tiny worms that you could kill by just stepping on them became monsters that could devour you in one gulp. Hell, that lizard that went hunting the other three students was something kids probably caught in their hands and played around with in the past, and it was already an E grade monster.

Bears, lions, tigers, and other similarly larger animals were all at or above the S rank, and they were the ‘kinder’ versions of their mutated forms. Even fucking deers were S ranked monsters since some of them turned carnivorous. Maybe ants were just B ranked monsters alone, but find a nest and you were done for.

“Do you really mean it? Are you not saying it just for my sake? Please, tell me if you do,” she grasped my hands and started begging me while looking deep into my eyes.

Smiling at her, I put my hand on the top of her head, “I swear upon my pride and name, I’m not lying. Ever since I almost lost my life to a shitty bee in the forest, I’ve been yearning to grow stronger and explore the outside world. We’re both curious people, so I think it’s only natural that we have at least one common goal. Well, we had two, but while you were away, I kind of ‘finished’ the former… I’m sorry about that,” I sighed.

Caressing my face, she said, “Don’t worry about it. Although it’d have been fun to work alongside you, I also got something while being apart from you. I don’t feel inferior anymore,” she chuckled.

“Ah, I can relate with you, even if I have trouble feeling the way you probably did. By the way, have you picked up on anything while I communicated with the monster?” I asked.

“I think I’ve sensed something because I could see something humanoid for a moment, but it disappeared shortly,” she sighed, shaking her head.

“Hmm, you’re almost there then. You’re doing better than I thought, well, I wasn’t sure how much it would matter if I helped you. It’s either because my help is better than I thought or you’re just talented. I’ll find out when I teach Elena. Oh, right, I haven’t told you about that,” I clapped my hands, remembering that I never shared my plans with her. “I was planning to start some kind of love fortune business.”

“Love fortune…” she repeated my words in a deep tone as she stopped in her tracks. “What.The.Fuck?”

“I’d use my knowledge about souls. Well, Elena would,” I said awkwardly, seeing her staring at me as if I said something stupid.

Raising a brow, she said, “And do you think it’s going to work out? I believe you, but what about others?”

“I believe in success because of three things,” I raised three fingers. “Firstly, the service will be sold by the mighty World Path that sold an incredible spell. Secondly, it won’t be too expensive and people are inherently curious. They’ll want to check out whether it works or not or they might pay for it just for the fun. Thirdly, once people realise that it’s accurate, they’re going to check in regularly, whenever they find a new boyfriend or girlfriend, and the list goes on,” I explained.

Frowning, she asked, “Do you want me to be honest?”

“Of course,” I nodded.

“I don’t like this plan. No, I straight hate it. I don’t like the idea that people would visit a place just to check if they’re fit for each other or not. What kind of community would that be? It sounds weird when I imagine it, and on the other hand, I don’t think that people would really bother going to that kind of place. I mean, imagine we started going out and we were in love, would you care about some fortune teller? I definitely wouldn’t even go there because I wouldn’t want to hear something unpleasant. I’m not saying that your business idea wouldn’t work out, but even if it did, I wouldn’t want it to happen,” she said.

“Woah, that was unexpected,” I nodded my head, taken aback by her strong reaction. She seemed to hate it a lot.

“I respect your opinion and it’s okay if you want to do it, I don’t want to tell you what to do-” she started explaining herself, but it was unnecessary so I cut into her words.

“Stop it,” I waved my hand. “I didn’t think that far if I have to be honest, and after hearing your reasoning, I’m not so sure about it either. Knowing that you hate it, I definitely won’t do it, but I have only a single problem with this. Elena. After finding out about her background, I’d feel kind of bad to just dump her and make her forget all about it, especially because she agreed and may have cut her ties with Olaf by now.”

Smiling, she said, “Haha, I always knew that you were kind hearted deep inside, no matter what you say. Honestly, she could just go back to him or work for another noble clan, but yeah, I feel the same way about her. She isn’t a bad person and although I hold a small grudge against her for trying to pick up my man, I don’t think I should be blinded because of it and it’s not like anything happened.”

“I love how you said ‘my man’, say it again,” I smirked.

“My man,” she mused before kissing me on the lips. Shortly pulling back, she said, “We should find Elena and tell her about this, and we should think of a way to make use of her in the future. She is a bit like a cornered animal who gave up on everything, so we can easily ‘guide’ her. What would we need from her if we started exploring the outside world?”

Massaging my eyes, I thought about it, but nothing came to mind. I really had no reason to go that far for Elena’s sake if I thought about it logically, but since I was the one who gave her hope and probably dragged her out of the wheel, I felt responsible to organise something for her.

Mistakes, mistakes, we all make mistakes! I should have been more patient and shared my plans with Lien first. Damn it, I still have to get used to the fact that I have someone I can share my plans with.

Since we got quite close to the oasis in the meantime, I stopped thinking about the matter and looked for souls nearby. I found about ten monsters, which was definitely something ‘hard’ for normal students, which meant that this was a place where a treasure awaited us. I was really curious what would we find there.

“Wait,” Lien said as she raised her right arm and held it in front of my chest, blocking me.

“What’s it? I know about the monsters if that’s what you’re worried about,” I replied, taking hold of her hand and pulling it closer to kiss it.

“N- No, it’s not that,” she muttered, a smile unconsciously creeping onto her face. Clearing her throat, she said, “I’ve just thought about it and came to the conclusion that these treasures are supposed to be traps. The stars we can get are good enough and these trials are meant to teach us as well. I can’t say I’ve ever listened to classes avidly, but even I remember that the teachers often expressed how important it was to never become too greedy.”

“Your point is?” I raised a brow, finding her line of thought plausible.

“I think that there are monsters above E grade defending these ‘treasures’, in case there is anything they actually protect. It may be a complete trap with no reward other than the stars,” she said with a frown.

“But the monsters should have stars, right?” I asked.

“I think it’d be cruel if they removed even that…” she nodded.

“Well, let’s go then,” I mused.

Shaking her head, she said, “You bloodthirsty pig.”

“What? I just want to have some fun! You took out all of them last time,” I grumbled.

“Whatever, I’ll leave it to you then.” She stopped in place and looked after me as I got further and further away from her. When she thought I wouldn’t hear her, she kicked up some sand and murmured, “Stupid Seth, I wanted to fight alongside you.”

Hearing that, I just wanted to go back to her side and eat her up. Using some wind magic, I hit her back with a wind blast and propelled her towards me. Since she wasn’t expecting that I’d cast magic on her and I was really quick when it came to casting speed, she helplessly got flung straight towards me.

“There we go,” I said as I caught her in my arms. Scared by the sudden event, she looked at me with wide opened eyes, breathing heavily. Caressing the back of her head, I laughed, “I’m sorry, darling. I didn’t want to scare you.”

“You don’t sound too convincing, and I’m not scared, I was just surprised. You don’t just get blasted away every day,” she said meaningfully.

“I won’t do it again, I swear! But you should have seen your face, hahaha.”

“That last part was really unnecessary,” she rolled her eyes as she turned away.

“I love you,” I kissed her face and kept staring at her intently. Looking at me from the corner of her eye, she stayed like that for a few seconds until she gave in and returned my kiss.

“You’re so cute. Come, we’ll get rid of the monsters together,” I smiled at her.

“So you heard… just what kind of ears do you have?”

“If you don’t want me to hear what you say, you better say it only in your mind because I’m always listening to what you have to say. Link helps me in doing that,” I chuckled.

“That’s really good to know. Does this mean that you hear me everywhere and anywhere?” she asked meaningfully. She was probably worried about her private masturbation times in the bathroom. Even when her dad was in the house, she relieved herself afraid that she wouldn’t be able to resist me, but she failed in the end anyway.

Staying silent, I smirked.

Her eyes twitched as she turned her back on me and made her way towards the oasis. “This dirty pig has been spying on me, for fuck’s sake. Just how much does he know? I bet he heard everything, damn it,” she stomped on the ground with each step she took and kept grumbling to herself. She was so fucking cute, I loved teasing her like this. I wasn’t worried about her getting angry with me, I knew her well enough and something like this wouldn’t anger her.

“Your moans were cute!” I shouted after her.

“Fuck you!” she shouted back as she pulled out her katana and charged towards the scorpions resting near the oasis. Those were all E grade monsters, so I quickly followed her just in case she got in a dangerous situation. But as expected of her, she didn’t just charge in mindlessly. She created a wall of rock between the three scorpions closest to her, separating them from each other.

Sensing her mana, they all turned towards her, but while one of them got rid of the wall and the other climbed over it, she cut off the pincers of the first scorpion and avoided its tail. By the time it pulled it out of the ground, she cut off its head and then used wind blast to propel herself backwards and make some distance between her and the scorpions.

“I’ll get the one in the back,” I said as I ran past her and waved my hand, pushing the one in the front to the side with a blast of water. I could see her shooting a bolt of lightning towards the water while the scorpion was still inside, shocking it by doing so.

Paralysed and unable to move, the scorpion watched helplessly as the blade of her weapon flew towards its head, separating it from the rest of its body with a clean cut. In the meantime, I shot a fireball towards the ground under the scorpion, causing it to explode and push the monster into the air. Although it trust its tail towards me, I easily avoided it and put my hand on its body.

With the help of transmutation, I disintegrated its body, leaving only the yellow star behind. Although this was a very powerful and destructive attack, it still took a second to activate and if I fought a high-level monster or a truly powerful person, they could injure me gravely by the time I destroyed them. That being the case, I could never be careful enough and most of the time I preferred staying further away from danger. As long as I had a way around it, I wouldn’t use this method I named Destruct.

“I’m always amazed when I see you using this, it’s amazing to see how things just disappear,” Lien muttered as she cleaned her katana and then put it back into her necklace. The way it hung down into her cleavage and accentuated her round breasts, made me go crazy every fucking time I looked there. I knew that she was looking at me, but I couldn’t stop staring.

“You can hold them at night all you want,” she said playfully, preparing her electric field for the incoming monsters.

“I’ll pretend I haven’t heard a thing,” I shook my head. Quickly changing the topic, I added, ”There are seven monsters remaining and we have eight stars already, so once we’re done with these, we’ve finished our task!”

“Yeah, but other students are most likely still struggling with killing their first monster or they’re refilling their mana pools, though mine refilled rather quickly for some reason,” she said.

“Did you know that lust quickens the process?” I asked with a knowing smile. Realising what I meant, she turned away a bit embarrassed.

So you were really lusting after me, hahaha. This feels so damned good, though there is a slight problem~

“I was just kidding, only sex would have that kind of effect,” I admitted the truth with a bright smile on my face.

Gnashing her teeth, she fired her spell and started bombarding the incoming scorpions with fireballs, taking out three of them instantly and paralyzing a fourth one. Appearing next to it with the help of some dark magic, I touched it and used Destruct. Seeing their kin falling one after the other so quickly, they became vary of us and stopped their charge. Switching tactic, each of the remaining three used earth magic and created a couple of sharp and pointy rock spikes. A moment later, the spikes shot towards us like bullets so I quickly made a wall of rock rise out of the ground in front of us.

I was surprised to see that the first five spikes pierced and destroyed the wall, leaving me defenseless against the remaining four that were flying towards me. I didn’t expect that it’d be so powerful, which made me understand that I was far from understanding how powerful some monsters were and that I was in a serious need of combat experience. It wasn’t like I was a martial arts master either, I just had much sharper senses than common students, so it was easy to avoid their attacks.

If I fought an expert in close range, I’d get done in, probably. Thanks to my sharp senses, I perceived everything in slow motion, which made it easy for me to react, even if my body couldn’t follow my perceiving speed. This was a common thing among magicians, but usually only powerful spellcasters had this kind of senses. If only warrior types had it, spellcasters and alike would have no chance in a battle because they’d be killed in the blink of an eye. In fact, those who were lacking in physical power had even better senses most of the time.

I could sense that Lien was right behind me, so I couldn’t just duck down to avoid the spikes and then finish the scorpions. Expending a bit more mana, I took over the control of the spikes and made them turn around in the air. This method was a bit costly, but it always surprised the one who cast the spell and being surprised wasn’t a good thing in a battle. In fact, it was the last thing I wanted to happen to me and even these shitty things managed to do it.

Unable to do anything against it, they all got skewered by their own spells. In the fraction of a second, I couldn’t have created another rock wall to stop the remaining spikes, though I could have used wind magic which had the quickest casting sequence. It was also an important skill to be able to judge which element would be the most efficient with the least cost in a battle. Although what I did could be called a ‘bad practise’ if I was having a long battle, but I knew these weak creatures would die.

I unlocked every affinity with a soul trick, so I could choose to my heart’s content, but it also complicated things. If you had limited affinities, you had fewer things to consider, after all. With the help of some earth magic, I moved the corpses into a pile and then we picked off the stars. Since we’d have to eat something during the day, Lien cut off a scorpion’s tail and got rid of the poisonous tip. It was a two meters long meat rod, so we would definitely get enough food off of it.

But just as I set the pile of sand coloured corpses on fire, a black scorpion much larger than the others raised out of the water in the middle of the oasis and snapped its pincers threateningly.

“Since when do scorpions rest underwater?” I cried out.

“How should I know?! And how did you not pick up on it?” Lien threw back the question.

“I was careless, I didn’t look for it that much…” I admitted to my mistake as I jumped back, avoiding the scorpion’s tail.

Its reach is about five meters, so I should be careful within that range. Well, it’s not like I want to start a melee battle with this armoured thing.

“Could you get back?” I asked. Nodding her head, Lien got even further away from the scorpion. Looking at its shiny armoured body, I knew it was resistant to fire and electricity and things like earth spikes definitely wouldn’t be able to penetrate it.

“What rank is it?” Lien questioned me.

“If I remember correctly from the lessons, this should be a D grade Black Scorpion, the kind of monster that would be a challenge to your father,” I replied. She probably sparred with him in the past, so she should understand its power more that way. Monsters from E to H grade were all relatively weak, they were at the bottom of the food chain, but above that, even a single grade could mean life or death for most.

Relatively speaking, we were supposed to run away and call the tamed monster for help, but I took out a much stronger monster not long ago. Thanks to my powerful mana, the lightning I created was way stronger than what Lien could use, so I proceeded to use her Electric Field. Despite the monster’s resistant body, its legs cramped and gave way for a moment.

Using that moment of instability, I made a deep dent in the sand beneath its right row of legs and made it fall on its side. While it was trying to regain its senses from the shock, I made a few vines grow out of the sand with the help of some nature magic and tied down the monster, starting with its tail and its pincers, followed by each of its legs. Although normally it was strong enough to tear the vines, I made the vines regrow infinitely and its movements were also much slower due to the shock.

While it laid there unable to move, I appeared in its shadow with the of dark magic and used Destruct. Sadly, for the monster, however strong of an armour it had, nothing could protect it from my trait. The monster got disintegrated and disappeared without a trace, except for a strange red star that it left behind. Picking it up, I gave it to Lien since she was the one in possession of the stars.

Seeing Lien looking at me a bit disappointed, I knew what she was thinking, so I explained myself, “I could have used a flashy spell, but this method barely cost any mana and took only a little bit more time. We can’t be sure what’s awaiting us outside the cities, far away from it and if we’ll keep running into monsters, we should get used to fighting methods that preserve our mana as much as possible.”

“Unless… you want to cross the world while having sex,” I smirked. Of course, I was joking, even if we were having sex while walking, we couldn’t just infinitely refill our mana pools and cast costly spells. Manalus hormone wasn’t infinite either, it was like sperm for guys during sex. Men couldn’t produce sperm continuously either. Well, as the incarnation of the god of sex, I had a few ways around that…

“I had no such plans, but I wanted to see something I haven’t had the chance before. Like back in the city when you used my spell!” she pouted. “I’ve seen this many times already anyway,” she added.

“If that’s what you want, my dear, you’ll get it the next time we run into a monster,” I smiled at her.

“No, that’d be totally pointless. We must find another place where is a powerful monster,” she grumbled.

“Why? What does it matter? It’ll be just as pointless against a ‘boss’ monster, don’t you think?” I asked.

“Although that’s true, it’s still got a different charm to it if you kill a D grade monster,” she kept reasoning with me, but she was being really unreasonable. She just wanted me to overpower some D grade monster with a powerful spell.

“Whatever you want,” I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m spoiling you way too much,” I sighed, shaking my head.

“When it comes to magic, I can only tell you that you should spoil me all you want. I’ll take it all in for sure!” she mused happily.

Smirking, I looked down as I said, “Well, I have something else you could take in.”

Laughing, she shook her head and raised her hands, “I give up on you. How can you even say something like that to a girl? You dirty pig!”

“Are you expecting me to tell it to a guy?” I raised a brow.

“You shouldn’t tell it to anyone,” she laughed. Despite her words, as long as she was the target of my dirty jokes, she always laughed at them.

Making things a bit more serious, I made my way towards the oasis as I said, “Well, jokes aside, considering that a Black Scorpion was here and that it had a red star on its body, it was most likely tamed and commanded to stay here. My problem with this is that if what I said is true, the one who tamed it saw everything that we did here, which I’m not happy about.”

Sitting down on the shore, I continued “The spells I used to kill the Black Scorpion were very simple, but thanks to the power of my mana and my casting speed, I could finish it easily. Even if others tried to kill this monster with the same spells, they wouldn’t be able to, which makes it obvious that my mana is way stronger than other people’s, not to mention that I used Destruct.”

“Oh, that doesn’t sound good,” she frowned as she sat down next to me and took off her boots. Placing her feet in the warm water, she added, “But we can’t do anything about it at this point, so why don’t we go down to check out what’s underwater?” she asked with a smile.

“So you noticed as well,” I muttered, looking towards the middle of the small pond. There was a straight tunnel leading underground.

“Of course!”

If I called the power of mana spell power and average students had a spell power of one thousand, then nobles had a spell power of… five thousand, maybe. The problem with this was that if there was something like spell power, mine would be around fifty thousand. That was the kind of difference I needed to deal with this monster so easily, despite using the spells that were weak against it. And to top it all off, I used your electric field, which I sold though the Spell Market and this one was visibly as powerful as the one people could see in the video, though it was smaller.

“Ahh! I’m such an idiot for not thinking about this earlier!” I slapped the water.

“If we use the same amount of mana, I can create fifty times more negative charges than a common student could and that’s something only clan leaders should be able to do, maybe not even them. This means that if there was really someone watching my battle, I may have just blown my own cover,” I grumbled.

“So, in short, you should have used a flashier spell to take it down!” she laughed.

Turning more serious, she started caressing my back to soothe me, “Back to the matter at hand, I understood what you meant even when you first said it, but it still doesn’t change the fact that it’s something that has happened, so you can’t do anything about it. That being the case, it’s pointless to think about it. What you should be thinking is how are you going to talk yourself out of it and how are you going to deal with other people if they confront you.”

I didn’t tell her that I just wanted to tell her my problem, she probably misunderstood me a bit, but it wasn’t a big deal. She listened to everything I told her, which helped quite a lot sometimes and the fact that she even cared about it, made me happy. Most people had friends who’d listen to their troubles, but only few had friends who’d actually care about those problems. It really helped that she could behave like a friend sometimes and behave like my lover the rest of the time.

“Alright, let’s check out the water instead, maybe we can find something,” I changed the topic and dove straight into the water. After getting about one meter away from the shore, the ground beneath my feet suddenly disappeared and led underground through a tunnel.

Coming back up for a moment, I said as I slowly pulled her towards the tunnel, “Take a very deep breath or use some wind magic because it’s about twenty meters deep. There will be a cavern where we can take a breath.”

“I know,” she replied with shining eyes, showing her excitement. Quickly getting ahead of me, she dove underwater while I enjoyed the scenery that her bottom provided. She was wearing frilly pink panties and her bra most likely matched based on what I’ve seen up till now. Realising that her shoulder strap was pink coloured, I felt like slapping my forehead, it was obviously matching.

Strangely enough, after being past halfway, the tunnel was becoming lighter and lighter instead of becoming darker. When we reached the bottom, there was a small turn to the right and then we had to swim straight up into a cavern. I took a deep breath as I reached the surface, and looked towards the ceiling filled with shining blue rocks.

“So that's why there was so much light deep underground,” Lien voiced her thoughts.

“It seems to be the case. Let's check out what's that,” I pointed towards a strange chalice in the middle of the tiny cavern.

Ignoring my words, she started caressing the walls, “It seems to be entirely human made, just look at these smooth walls. They must have done it with earth magic.” Knocking on it a few times, she listened to the sound. “Yeah, this smooth rock is the kind we create with earth magic. We should look around carefully, there may be traps.”

“And here I thought that you were getting intimate with the walls,” I remarked.

“Hahaha, you fool.”

“Hey, it was you who started caressing the walls,” I pointed out.

Shaking her head, she quickly looked around and made sure that there were no devices or spells to spy on us. I knew that the place was clear of traps, but it was good to be careful, so I didn’t stop her. After creeping out of the water, we found a paper bag in the chalice, containing three pills and a scroll.

Taking out the scroll, I read it aloud, “These are mana strengthening pills and you may exchange the red star you got from the monster for even more. Congratulations on joining the ranks of the elites. The red star is also a pass to the Elite University where you can learn advanced spells from your tutors.”

“We’re safe here, why don't we consume them?” Lien asked as soon as I finished reading.

“You’re really fired up when it comes to stuff like this, aren’t you?” I shook my head smiling. She pretended to be calm a moment ago and now she could barely hold herself back from jumping on the pills. “But sure, go ahead.”

“What do you mean, are you not going to take them?” she frowned.

“Uhm, look, I know that you want to share it with me, but it’s really unnecessary. These pills wouldn’t do anything to my mana, but they’d be a great help for you. Why would I waste it on myself if it could make you stronger?” I asked.

Seeing her staring at me intently, I caressed her face as I added, “I’m dead serious. It really wouldn’t do anything to me. I’ll watch out for you while you consume them. It should take a lot of time anyway.”

Nodding her head, she took all three of them into her hands and sat down on the ground. Resting her back against the wall, she crossed her legs and looked at me as I laid down next to her and put my head on her left thigh.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m trying to find a way to use you as a cushion, but in this pose your thighs are too high, though they feel very comfortable,” I replied as I sat back up. If only she hadn’t crossed her legs.

“I can see that- oh, hey!” while she was talking, I put my hands on her hips and raised her up to place her a bit forward. Sitting down behind her, I leaned against the wall and pulled her into my embrace. My chin on her shoulder and my arms around her waist, I closed my eyes with a smile on my face.

“While consuming the pills, try to sense my soul or your soul, it doesn’t matter whose,” I muttered as I started feeding her my soul. By feeding, I meant that I engulfed her soul with mine. Souls were a bit similar to amoebas.

“It’s hard to do something when someone is clinging to you, but okay,” she moved around a bit, but gave up on it shortly. Sighing, she muttered, “At least, it feels good.” Stuffing three pills into her mouth, she closed her eyes and gulped them down. These pills just contained a large amount of a powerful person’s mana, mixed with a few herbs. Once the pills dissolved, she’d have to digest them and circulate the overflowing mana. While being in contact with a stronger version of mana, hers would be permanently enhanced.

The reason these pills wouldn’t do anything to my mana was that mine was stronger than what was stored in the pills. If anything, I’d have enhanced the mana in the pill before it disappeared without a trace, which would have been pointless. Once Lien learned to sense souls, I’d teach her how to strengthen her mana, though it’d be a long process. One way or the other, mana strengthening was a long and cumbersome process, so Lien would need at least eight hours to digest all three pills.

I’ll meditate and train my soul in the meantime, she might pick up on it and learn how to sense souls. It’s not like I’ll have anything better to do.

Four hours quietly passed by in the blink of an eye, but that was soon interrupted by a group of intruders. Hearing the water splash, I opened my eyes and found three familiar students in the middle of the water, looking at us.

“Don’t stop, just focus on circulating it,” I whispered into her ear, feeling that she started moving around restlessly in my arms. She definitely heard and sensed that we had some intruders.

Relaxing her body, she stopped minding her surroundings and focused back on what she was doing. If she got interrupted now, the remaining mana could start rampaging in her veins and tear them apart. I could heal her, but it’d still hurt a lot and I wouldn’t want her to go through so much pain just because of some stupid students.

Raising my head, I turned towards the students and said, “Yo, as you can see we took everything here, so could you leave?”

Lost in their thoughts upon seeing a beauty like Lien, they kept looking her up and down and caught to their senses only a moment later. “Ah, sorry, what did you say? There was still some water in my ears,” the black haired guy on the right side said.

As if anyone would believe a dumb lie like that. Whatever, let’s not become enemies if not necessary.

“I asked if you could leave us alone,” I replied.

Looking around in the tiny cavern with an amazed face, the brown haired guy on the left said, “What a strange place. It’s really beautiful with all these blue crystals!”

Ignoring me twice… they were starting to piss me off.

“Yeah, and look, it seems to be human-made. This must be a place where a treasure was hidden,” the one in the middle looked around as well, his eyes stopping on the empty chalice at Lien’s feet. Seeing that she was meditating, he clicked his tongue.

“It seems like they’ve got ahead of us,” the black haired guy chuckled. “Could you tell us what was in the chalice? We aren’t here to cause trouble, we’re just curious what should we expect if we found a similar place,” he said, raising his hands to show his friendliness.

“There was a mana strengthening pill, but she took it already, as you can see,” I replied, not hiding anything other than the amount. After thinking about it, I realised that each of them could have got one if they got here before us.

Hah, sucks for you! It’s all hers now.

“Damn, that’s a really nice reward, but I imagine there was a powerful monster protecting it,” the black haired guy said. “Ah, right, my name is James.”

“I’m Arnold,” the brown haired guy said.

“Mark,” the guy in the middle scoffed. He seemed to be really dissatisfied by the current turn of events. He probably thought he’d find some treasure here. I’d have been happier if they didn’t introduce themselves because I could have kept my name a secret like that.

“She’s Lien and I’m Seth. Please don’t bother her while she’s absorbing the pill.”

Nodding his head, James said in a low voice, “Are you interested in joining us? I’m sure five people would easily finish the task and we could gather even more stars together.”

Shaking my head, I replied, “Thanks, but no. We want to finish this together, only the two of us.”

“Ah, a shame. Well, it’s up to you, if we meet again you should reconsider teaming up with us,” he laughed and waited for me to say something like ‘maybe’. Seeing that I stayed silent, he cleared his throat and asked, “Which direction did you plan to go? I’m just asking so that we wouldn’t rob each other from opportunities like these.”

He doesn’t seem to be lying, but I’m not sure. They were definitely trailing us, I just don’t get what they want. Could they be Mary’s apostles? She might be stronger than I thought and sensed me even without me being able to sense her. Damn it, there are too many things I don’t know.

“I was thinking about checking out the forest. I don’t want to dive too deep into the desert for now,” I replied.

Looking at me with doubtful eyes, he nodded his head, “We’ll definitely won’t run into each other anytime soon, in that case.”

Taking one last look at Lien, he asked, “Your girlfriend?”

“Yes, isn’t she an angel?” I asked with a smile, kissing her face.

James knew that she’d hear it if he replied aloud, so he just nodded his head and then turned around in a hurry, “Well, let’s go then. We’ve got to find another treasure!”

“Of course!” Arnold shouted as he jumped into the water and disappeared along with his friends. I wasn’t sure how powerful Mary was, but I knew that these guys were much weaker than me, so I put a tracking spell on them. Although it’d be hard to accurately tell how far they were, I’d know which direction they were headed to and if they were getting close.

Roughly three hours later, Lien opened her eyes and relaxed her body, “Haah- finally, I’m done.”

Stretching her arms, she sat up and asked, “What the hell was that? Were they following us because of me or what? I don’t want to sound conceited, but I swear I could feel them staring at me.”

“Well, they were doing just that, but who wouldn’t stare at someone like you?” I laughed as I pushed her down.

“Hmm~ what now?” she asked playfully, but instead of doing something perverted, I started tickling her sides.

“A-Ahn, n-no, not there, haha, stop!” she slapped my hand away, surprisingly weak to it. Going at it once more, I started moving towards her breasts, so she quickly slapped my hand again, “You jerk!” she cried out as she sat up and held them defensively.

“You do realise that guys would want to get you even more when you behave like that, right?” I raised a brow.

“I don’t care!”

“I just want you even more.”

Standing up, she stretched her body and cracked her joints, “Mmmmmh, a good stretch feels the best sometimes!” Looking around, she said, “I think that it should be getting dark out there, right? Or what time is it? We could stay here for the night, it’s such a romantic place!”

Taking out my phone, I checked the time. In this age, every phone was water repellent and crushproof, so I didn’t have to mind things like a sudden dive. “It’s five in the afternoon, we can come back here later, but we should go out for now and kill a few more monsters,” I replied.

“Uhm- I’ve got a better idea. Both of us have the necessary amount of stars to finish this exam, but these ‘treasure’ places seem to hide better things, so instead of garnering attention by gathering a lot of stars and finishing with an outstanding result, we could silently rob these treasures. I’m sure we could take out those guardian monsters in the blink of an eye if we worked together. How about it?” she asked.

“Just one question, do we want to reveal that we have red stars?”

“I think that we should keep them for now and reveal it only if the reward was really worth it. Otherwise, we should just stay silent about it,” she replied.

“I’m in! I like this idea much better. You already got more pills than you’d have gotten for fifty stars, so I agree that we should focus on these treasures. If a tamer really noticed me, it doesn’t really matter at this point and if they didn’t, then I’d just make sure that they wouldn’t get the chance.”

“Great!” she beamed at me.

“You just want to see shiny spells,” I rolled my eyes.

“Of course!” she admitted it instantly. Shaking my head, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Well, we’ve used up most of the air in here, so I should make a ventilating route,” I remarked. Looking upwards, I made a rock tunnel form right above us which led to the surface. It was quite small, but it’d be enough to refill the place with fresh air while we were out, especially if I used some wind magic. Since I made the hole right in the middle of a bush, nobody would find this place without going into the water, and I also made a formation to keep the pressure inside. I didn't want the cave to be filled with water...

We left the cavern and took a quick look around in the area, but even after walking around for three hours, we couldn’t find anything other than a few monsters. We also came across a few smaller groups of students and some ‘lone wolfs’, but we made sure to avoid everyone. As it slowly started to darken, I could see fires being lit here and there in the desert. I didn’t think it was a good idea, since it’d sell out their position, but most people had no brains.

After going back to the cavern underground, we set up a small fire and grilled the scorpion meat which I seasoned with some black pepper and salt. It wasn’t the best thing to eat for someone who got used to delicious homemade meals, but I knew I’d have to get used to this kind of food if I wanted to explore the world with Lien.

Thanks to the small hole I made, we didn’t have to worry about the smoke either. It was time to take a bath and then go to sleep! Or do something more~

--- Lien’s POV ---

As we finished eating, I put the spices back into my backpack while Seth set up the tent, but when I peeked at him without turning around, I found him looking at me.

He’s staring again… He was definitely looking at my ass. Why don’t you stop? You know that I can see you and you don’t even care about it! Damn it, I gave myself to him every time he desired me and he got used to it. Since when did I become an easy prey? Ah, for fuck’s sake, but I can’t say no! I must get in control of my emotions, just because I love him, I shouldn’t do it with him every time he wants it.

The real problem is that I want it as well...

“What is it?” I asked as I turned towards him. Lying down on the ground, he leaned on his arm and kept looking at me with an amused face.

“I love you,” he said all of a sudden, still grinning like an idiot.

“Could you stop? I’ll take a bath,” I said as I turned back towards the bag and took out a towel. Since he put down a few wards around the place, he’d notice if anyone came nearby, so I wasn’t afraid of taking a bath in the water. I got a bit sweaty after walking around in the sun all day and I liked staying clean on the long run.

Sitting down at the side of the cavern, I took off my knit dress and my stockings, all the while being stared at by that moron. I didn’t think I’d ever feel so embarrassed while taking off my clothes. He had seen me naked numerous times, but I still felt embarrassed because of the way he stared at me, unblinking, unmoving, and smiling.

“I told you to stop!” I cried out.

“What? I’m not doing anything,” he mused. Clenching my fists, I reached behind my back and was about to unhook my bra when I suddenly felt it being taken off of me. He got behind me so quickly I didn’t even sense it.

“Here you go,” he reached over my arm and hung it in front of me.

“Thanks,” I muttered, taking it from his grasp.

“I never thought a girl would thank me for taking off her bra,” he chuckled. “You’re my greatest amusement,” he added as he latched onto the seam of my panties and started pulling on it.

“Fuck you.”

Slapping on his hand, I quickly walked a bit deeper into the water and sat down further away from him. Since the water was very clean and I brought along some shampoo, I washed my whole body thoroughly, leaving out only one place. I sneakily turned around to check whether he was still looking at me or if he entered the tent, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. Turning around completely, I almost got a heart attack.

He was sitting in the water only a few inches behind me and I didn’t even notice him! Clenching my fists, I held back my scream and heaved out a sigh of relief, knowing that it was just him.

“What are you doing?” I frowned.

“Well, well, why are you looking back? Shouldn’t you wash your body everywhere?” he waved his finger while pulling on my panties with his other hand.

“I know, and stop it, I can do it myself,” I grabbed his wrist, seeing that he was reaching towards my private place. He got too cocky these days, I had to make him fight for it a bit, even if I desired him just as much.

If only I had better control over my emotions.

Staring intently at me for a few seconds, he stopped pushing his hand and sat back down with a smile. He would never give up, he was the kind of person who would go on until he got what he wanted.

As soon as I turned around, he embraced me from behind and pulled me between his legs. Reaching over my shoulders and weighing his whole body on me, he put his hands on my thighs and said, “Let me see how you wash yourself properly. I want to make sure that you stay healthy.”

Uhh, I’m tingling so much down there.

Relaxing my body, I rested the back of my head on his shoulder and put my hand on his. Surprised by my sudden change of behaviour, he started staring at me in silence. Although I wanted him to fight a bit more for the pleasure he desired, I was getting too excited to hold back my own lust.

Slightly panting, I raised my head and looked up at him, “Why don’t you show me how it’s done then?”

His penis swelled and started poking my bottom as soon as I finished my sentence. Opening my legs, I moved his right hand towards my private place, excited upon remembering the taste of his fingers. The times when he was stirring me up all the way inside.

“So it was really pink both above and below,” he remarked.

I shook my head in confusion, realising a moment later that he was talking about my underwear. “Do you like when they match?” I asked playfully.

Tracing his finger along the line of my areola, he growled into my ear as he slowly started moving his right hand towards my panties, “I love it.” Grasping onto my breast, he started fondling it with a satisfied smile on his face. Although they were very troublesome and sometimes hurt, I was really proud of my breasts and liked them a lot, especially because Seth loved them.

“That's good then, I have all of them in pairs,” I said with a smile, not minding his hand. He loved fondling them, but it didn’t make me feel much during sex, though it definitely aroused me and excited me a bit.

“Hmm, do you want to feel good? I have something in mind that could come with a lot of pleasure,” he said as he gave a kiss on my cheek. He slowly moved his left hand from my chest up to my neck and made me turn to the side. His fingers sank into my skin as he strongly started pulling me towards himself and started kissing and sucking on my neck at the same time.

Reaching down, he leaned over my shoulder and stuck his hand into my panties. Feeling his finger pressuring my clitoris, I bit on my lower lip and pushed my hips forward, trying to rub my clit against his hand. Breathing heavily because of all the tingling excitement, I looked up at him and asked, “Is that all?”

“Do you want more?”

“Well, that wasn't much,” I replied, still shaking my hips. For some reason the fact that I was using him like some kind of tool aroused me so much.

Looking at me with a sudden epiphany in his eyes, he put his hands on my waist and pulled me onto his thighs. Since I got higher up, the water reached only a little bit above my thighs. I was surprised to see that his penis was long enough to stick out of the water, despite being under me. Taking hold of his shaft with both of my hands, I started moving them up and down. Knowing that he liked it when there was a lot of pressure on his penis, I strengthened my grip.

“Uh, that’s a strange way to hold it, but I like it,” he grunted, hugging me from behind.

As the water got under his foreskin and I picked up my pace, his cock started giving out cupping sounds, which I found rather amusing. Closing my legs around his penis, I sandwiched him between my thighs and started playing with his glans, slowly moving around his most sensitive spots. His penis twitched every time I moved across the lower half of his head, right on the edge of his glans.

“It’s kind of cute how it’s twitching and jumping around so much,” I chuckled, feeling his thigh spasm under my ass. “Are you about to cum?” I asked.

I wanted to pleasure him even more, so I was about to turn around and focus on his thing entirely, but he grabbed my shoulders and said, “Stay like that.”

“Okay,” I replied while he grabbed the edges of my panties and pulled it down to my thighs. He raised me up for a moment to get his penis into my panties and pressed it against my wet pussy.

“It’s just water,” I said playfully and started shaking my hips back and forth. I could feel his excitement through his whole body, his stiff arms around my sides, his heavy breathing in my ear, and his erect penis that seemed to be the most willful thing in the world. It wouldn’t bend no matter what I did with it.

Despite his request, I raised my hips a bit more and decided to give him a strong handjob. As he got in a half-sitting position and I sat down on his belly, he moved both of his hands from my sides towards my pussy and pulled my labia apart. Without any warning or foreign, he inserted four of his fingers into my vagina and spread me apart from the inside. A strong jolt of pleasure rushed out of my clitoris, causing a spasm to run through my whole body.

“I desire you so much,” he growled into my ear, pushing even deeper and spreading me apart even more in the meantime. Some of the water rushed in through my stretched out pussy and tickled my insides.

“Mhn~ that’s good.”

“Your hand slowed down,” he whispered into my ear.

“I’m sorry, but that felt really good,” I apologised, picking up my pace once again. As a reward, he started moving his fingers and shoved his fingers even deeper and then pulled them back out, strongly rubbing my folds along the way. His fingers felt good, but I wanted more. I wanted his thick penis to stir me up all the way inside and ravage my insides. I loved it when he started pounding me roughly, it made me feel his lust for me more than anything.

“Why are you panting so hard?” he asked playfully.

Remembering our play earlier, a sudden idea came to mind as I looked at him with upturned eyes and said, “Master, I want more. Your fingers aren’t good enough punishment for me anymore.” Gripping his shaft with even more strength, I added, “I want this thick monstrous thing inside me. I want it to stir me up, so could you?”

“Ah, shit,” he said as I felt something hot splash on my cheek, all the way down to my belly and my hand. Turning forwards, I realised he came so strong from my handjob that he shot it all over my body. Knowing that it’d arouse him to no end and that he’d start pounding me wildly because of it, I licked off his sperm from the side of my mouth.

Looking straight into his eyes, I wiped it off of my cheek and carefully licked my fingers clean. “So? How about it, Master?” I smiled at him as I stuck out my chest and pressed my bottom against him, making my back arch in a way that men would find sexy. Getting the desired reaction, he looked down and grabbed my ass as he started panting heavily.

“Holy shit,” he growled in a low voice. Peeking at his thing for a moment, I could see it hardening again and turning even longer than before. He must have used some sort of magic, but I didn’t mind as long as I got to enjoy the night with him.

Seemingly in a hurry, he slapped some water on my chest and washed me clean. Once he finished, he took off my panties, spread my legs wide open and pushed my face towards the surface of the water. In that kind of angle and position, I almost fell into the water face first, but he grabbed my hair and held me back. In the same moment he grabbed my hair, he raised my waist with his left hand and shoved his thick cock straight into me in one go.

An incredible wave of pleasure rushed out of my vagina and combined with the slight pain I felt from the pulling of my hair, accentuating the pleasure and making me go straight to heaven. It just gave the perfect little bit of extra flavour that my body was desiring. My insides spasmed and my folds clenched his penis tightly as I came on the spot. I was so fucking aroused because of all the foreplay, but I never thought I’d come the moment he put it in.

“This will be your punishment,” he growled into my ear, his voice echoing in the tiny cavern. This was the first time that he handled me so roughly during sex, but I loved it. I wasn’t a masochist, but I loved wild sex and this kind of slight pain just made things better.

“Yes, Master,” I said, trying to sound playful, but I found my voice hoarse. Not even I expected that I’d enjoy it this much. My legs were a bit higher up than my upper body as I was forced to lean forward into this strange angle. Knowing that I wouldn’t fall anymore, he moved his right hand through my rich hair and grabbed the back of my head with his right hand, putting some pressure on it. Placing his left hand on my ass, he grabbed it and started moving inside my tight and wet pussy.

I was totally drenched because of this little play. I loved this wild and unrestrained behaviour he showed me during sex, it was the only time when I could see straight through him and see his inner desires, his wild and animalistic being.

Ah, there is no way I could ever hate him. I love him so much, I want even more punishment~

I started panting like a dog as he started pounding me, but I couldn’t help it, I was way too horny and excited. I also loved how he took good use of my flexible body ever since he found out about it. While I spread my legs into splits, putting even more pressure on his dick, he sat on his legs with his knees on the ground and leaned on my back to continue pounding me.

The water made things very smooth down there, though we had no reason to do it in the water since I was totally drenched inside. I loved how our bodies were so close and pressed against each other.

Pushing my face underwater, I looked down at my own nipples and found them standing hard and erect. Seth couldn’t contain himself from taking my left nipple between his fingers. Using his right hand to reach down between my legs, he started playing with my clitoris. Placing my hands on the floor underwater, I pushed my face back out of the water and caught my breath for a moment before going back down and looking past my breasts, at the place where we were connected.

His thick cock kept going in and out of my pussy which was leaking buckets of liquid. I bet he loved the sight just as much as I did. As he stopped playing with my clit, he grabbed my hair once again and forcefully pulled me back out of the water, sending a slight jolt of pain towards my brain. Mixed with that incredible sense of pleasure I felt, it just heightened my senses even more for a short period of time.

Holding me by the hair and my nipples still between his fingers, he used telekinesis to move my panties in front of me. Stuffing it into my mouth, he moved his hand towards my mouth and covered it.

With my mouth stuffed, I couldn’t even moan as I wanted, though I was trying my best to hold it back up till now. Thinking that I wouldn’t have to mind it like this, I bit on my own underwear and let out a muffled sound.

“Mhm, Mhasheh, this is sho good,” I tried to speak, though I failed miserably. Drowning in the pleasure I felt, I started moving my hips up and down on his shaft and strained my folds around his penis as much as I could. Feeling the increased pressure on his cock, he grunted loudly and slowed down a bit. He was most likely about to cum once again, but I was very, very close to it as well.

Imagining that maybe we could cum together, I started shaking my hips back and forth. He stopped covering my mouth with his hand and leaned back to put both his hands on my ass. Caressing my round bottom, he raised his hand and slapped on it all of a sudden, sending a strong jolt through my back, towards my brain.

“Mhh~” my underwear drowned my moan. As he slapped it one more time, his cock started trembling and swelling in my vagina, spreading me out even more.

“Uh, Lien…” he grumbled as I turned around and looked into his eyes while relentlessly shaking my hips.  

Seeing my pussy persistently sticking to his shaft, he clenched his teeth and gripped my ass even stronger than before, “I can’t,” he muttered.

I was only inches away from cumming, so I replied to the best of my abilities, “I whanh ih.”

Understanding what I meant, he let go of my buttocks and started kissing my neck while he focused on my clitoris with both hands. Destroyed by all the pleasure flowing through my body, I was sent to cloud nine instantly. My folds constricted as a wave of liquid gushed out of my pussy, while he dumped all his cum deep into my vagina.

His hot and slimy sperm filled me up inside and made his movements even smoother inside. I couldn’t even move since all my muscles cramped while I orgasmed. Clenching my fists, I closed my eyes and focused my attention on the heavenly pleasure I felt.

Slowly loosening up, I finally took a deep breath and enjoyed the lingering pleasure. When he stopped cumming, he pulled it out and made me sit up by pulling me back up by the hair. Making me turn around, he pushed my face towards his penis, “Clean me up.”

Taking out my underwear from my mouth, I played along, “Yes, Master.”

Looking up into his eyes, I made sure to keep eye contact as I took his sperm-covered penis into my mouth and slowly bobbed forward to take him all the way in. Rolling my tongue around his shaft, I cleaned him up and then slowly pulled back and sat down on my legs. I’ve never in my life came so hard and long like today, topping even last time. Sex was just getting better and better, but I wasn’t surprised by that.

I never knew what exactly aroused me since I had no experience. Now that I had someone to ‘practise’ with, I was starting to explore my own fetishes and desires. It felt rather nice to find out more and more about myself.

“You’re so darned beautiful,” he remarked, eyeing my naked wet body.

“Thanks,” I mused, staring back at his muscular body. It was a shame I couldn’t look at him during sex, but other little things made up for it and even surpassed the usual excitement I got from looking at him. Imagining him staring at me coldly while feeling all the pleasure I felt a minute ago, a small shudder rushed through my back. It’d have surely turned me on even more.

Still looking into my eyes, he reached forward and inserted his index finger into my pussy.

“Mh-” clenching my fists, I held back my moan and asked, “What are you doing, Master? Could it be it wasn’t enough for you?”

“Not even nearly enough,” he growled as he jumped towards me and pulled me into his strong arms. A bit surprised by his intensity, I opened my eyes wide for a moment, but I quickly recovered and returned his hug.

Pressing his forehead against mine, he looked into my eyes and took a deep breath before kissing me once again. As I opened my lips and my teeth, he pushed his tongue into my mouth and started to wildly dance around in it. Crossing his path with my tongue, I started rolling it around and sucking on it with my all. I just wanted to suck him in, it felt so good.

Placing his hands on my shoulders, he pushed me back and started kissing my shoulder instead. He slowly moved upwards and crossed my collarbone, moving up to my neck, my cheeks, finally reaching my lips once again. Overwhelmed by my own desires, I pushed him down into the water.

Luckily, his head was out of the water, so I didn’t have to fear him being suffocated. As he stretched out his legs, I rested my hands on his chest and sat down on his belly. While keeping eye contact, I raised my hips and started moving back and forth, trying to point his penis towards the right place. Leaning on his chest, I whispered into his ear, “Master, could you discipline me? I can’t seem to find the right place.”

Smiling at me, he reached down and pointed his thing towards my entrance. Steeling my nerves, I slowly sat down on him and raised my chin as a sense of pleasure gushed out of my clitoris. Pushing his middle finger along with his penis, he started rubbing my upper walls, seemingly looking for something.

Knowing where to find it, he found my g-spot in the blink of an eye and started rubbing it with his finger. I wanted to savour every inch of his penis that entered my vagina, so I started shaking my hips on my own, but only slowly. As I rested my head on his broad, muscular chest, he put his arms around my waist. Pushing my arms under his back, I did the same.

The way we pressed our bodies against each other and came in contact, filled me with an incredible sense of safety. I knew where and who I belonged to and I knew that I could count on him, no matter what happened.

Maybe it was strange to think about him at a time like this, but not even my father could make me feel this safe and happy. Kissing the top of my head, he murmured with a gentle voice, “I love you, Lien.”

My heart got flooded by happiness and pleasure upon hearing his words, so I quickly raised my head and moved a bit further up to kiss him. “I love you as well.” Sure enough, I was doing well holding back my voice because despite the slow movements, I was very sensitive this time, maybe because I orgasmed not long ago. Holding me in his loving arms, he picked up his pace just a tiny bit more, still going slow and steady.

Along his way to my womb, he made sure to brush past all of my weak spots, rubbing them as strongly as he could. Slowly giving out, we both came after some time. Slow and steady sex was a really nice change of pace sometimes.

Once we finished, he washed my body and my pussy properly and then we entered the tent to sleep for the night. I had to admit it, I enjoyed every damned moment of our first night in the outside world. It was pretty safe underground as well, so while lying on his arm and being cuddled, I brought up the matter and told him that we should sleep underground during our travels in the future.

Saying that it was probably safer that way, he agreed with me. As he cuddled me in his arms, I started planning our future, even though I knew that it wasn’t up to me to tell him what to do.

But it was a very entertaining thing to do for me.

Unfortunately, during the time I visited my dreamland, I remembered something terrible. I heard so many guys talk about how they got bored of their girlfriends because they could get them anytime they wanted. There was no challenge at all and that definitely applied to me as well. He got me whenever he wanted me because I desired him just as much, but what if he got bored of me because of it?

“Ah, hell, that was fucking good!” he thought aloud at the worst possible moment. What if one day he said the opposite and became indifferent to me? What if he stopped enjoying having sex with me? Sure enough, sex wasn’t the basis of everything and he’d probably continue loving me, but one couldn’t be too ignorant. An unhappy sex-life could lead to a terrible end of our relationship, though I’d definitely fight to keep us together.

Raising my hand to my chest, I clenched my chest and ignored the pain as I imagined a scene where he broke up with me. Even imagining it hurt so much, I became terrified of something like that happening. As we both laid on our right side, his front touching my back, I felt his arms tighten around me as he asked with a startled voice, “Lien? Are you alright?”

Noticing that something was wrong, he started caressing my arms and kissed the back of my head, “Tell me, do you hurt somewhere? What’s the problem?”

I felt like crying seeing how much he cared for me, yet here was I thinking about bullshit, but I couldn’t help it. I was afraid. What if he got bored of me? Would he dump me? At first, I thought I’d just find him unworthy if he became a different person and that my love for him would disappear, but by now, I learned that wouldn’t be the case. He was still the kind of person I fell in love with and I fell for him even more since then and it’d be impossible for me to just stop loving him and leave as if nothing happened. I realised how naive and ignorant I was.

Sure, I’m desired by many guys, but he could still get bored of my body. At this point he doesn’t even care whether I notice him or not. What should I do? Can I even do something about this?

Seeing him staring at me intently, I felt prompted to talk about my thoughts. Even if he became a bit different, I wouldn’t want to lose him and being as gentle and loving with me as he was, I found it impossible to have a change of heart. I had always been afraid to come in contact with others, they betrayed me every time. I knew that Seth felt the same way in that aspect, yet I still doubted him and that made me feel terrible.

“What’s the problem?” he repeated his question, gently caressing me.

Covering my face, I said, “Can’t we just drop the matter? I’m sure you’re going to laugh at me.” Sure I didn’t have much experience with relationships, but I heard so many guys talk about how they were getting bored of their girlfriends and other similar things. That damned seed of doubt kept sprouting in me and made me think that he’d push me aside sooner or later. Maybe I was trying to look at things too logically instead of relying on my own emotions.

“No, you can’t keep silent about it,” he chuckled.

Looking into his eyes, I muttered, “It’s just that I’m afraid that you’ll get bored of me because I’m too easy to get for you. Don’t you guys like challenge and stuff? I’m nothing like that and I’m afraid that you may get bored of me-”

“Pfft- Khm,” he drowned his laughter and cleared his throat. He really wanted to laugh at me, which made me ease up a bit as I awaited his answer. “You must be really stupid to think of something like that, especially after a night like this one. There is no.way.in.fucking.hell that I’d ever get bored of you, got that? Etch it into that silly head of yours so that you wouldn’t forget again. Maybe there are guys who like it when women are challenging, but I’m not like them. Well, not in the way other guys like it.”

“I liked that you shot down so many of them and that you’d have done so with me as well if you didn’t have mutual feelings, right?” he asked.

“Yes, I’ve been in love with you for a long time, that was the only reason I didn’t shoot you down right off the bat,” I nodded my head. Unless they made me like them, guys had no chance with me, and it wasn’t an easy thing to do these days. Maybe even Seth was special to me only because I grew up with him and knew him in advance.

“Now then, while we’re at doubts, I could ask the same then!” he cried out. “If a guy made you like him, would you easily go over to him?”

I knew what he meant, so I shook my head with a smile. We were both very faithful types, so my thoughts had no basis to them, just as much as his question. Once I made the commitment to stay with someone, I’d most likely stay with him even if I stopped having feelings for him and it wasn’t good anymore, unless he broke my trust by cheating on me. I never thought he’d do that, though.

Sighing loudly, I chuckled, “Thanks. I knew that it was stupid, but I think I just needed some verbal confirmation. I wanted to hear it from you.”

“I know, it’s fine,” he continued caressing me.

“Should I purr like a cat?” I asked playfully, once the ‘dark clouds’ went away.

“Haha, if you want to… I just like caressing you,” he smiled at me.

“Mhm- I like it as well, it make us feel closer and more intimate with each other,” I murmured.

“Let’s go to sleep, we have a lot to do tomorrow,” he said, kissing the back of my head once again. I didn’t even know why I started a retarded drama like that.

I guess it’s natural, I see people make unnecessary drama all the time…

Pushing my thoughts aside, I remarked, “A lot? Like what?”

“Dive deeper into the desert, get you to sense souls, and have even more outdoor sex because it feels crazy good,” he answered in one breath.

“Haha, I like all of these, though the last one sounds like the beginning of something dangerous,” I laughed.

“Hmm, we could make it ‘dangerous’,” he mused.

After having a quick good night kiss, we closed our eyes and went to sleep without any worries about the future. It was really nice that he always listened to every stupid thing that came to my mind and helped me fixing my doubts in the blink of an eye.

I didn’t have to wrack my nerves on them.

I believed it was only natural that I’d return his help whenever he needed it, no matter what he was doing. Maybe it sounded a bit dangerous and out of mind, but he was a reasonable person. If he ever deviated from his path, I’d be there for him to put him back in his place!